290 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



been left without provisions or fire-arms. I had 

 previously observed that some large fragments of 

 rock on the beach had been lately displaced ; but 

 until seeing this wave, I did not understand the 

 cause. One side of the creek w^as formed by a 

 spur of mica-slate ; the head by a cliff of ice about 

 forty feet high ; and the other side by a promon- 

 tory fifty feet high, built up of huge rouncfed frag- 

 ments of granite and mica-slate, out of v^rhich old 

 trees vv^ere growing. This promontory was evi- 

 dently a moraine, heaped up at a period when the 

 glacier had greater dimensions. 



When we reached the western mouth of this 

 northem branch of the Beagle Channel, we sailed 

 amongst many unknown desolate islands, and the 

 weather was wretchedly bad. We met with no 

 natives. The coast was almost everywhere so steep 

 that we had several times to pull many miles before 

 we could find space enough to pitch our two tents : 

 one night we slept on large round boulders, with 

 putrefying sea- weed between them ; and when the 

 tide rose, we had to get up and move our blanket- 

 bags. The farthest point westward which we reach- 

 ed was Stewart Island, a distance of about one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles from our ship. We returned 

 into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and 

 thence proceeded, with no adventure, back to Pon- 

 sonby Sound. 



February 6th. — We an-ived at Woollya. Mat- 

 thews gave so bad an account of the conduct of 

 the Fuegians, that Captain Fitz Roy determined to 

 take him back to the Beagle ; and ultimately he 

 was left at New Zealand, where his brother was a 

 missionary. From the time of our leaving, a reg- 

 ular system of plunder commenced ; fresh parties 

 of the natives kept an'iving : York and Jemmy lost 

 many things, and Matthews almost everything which 



